Way of the Samurai (PFRPG)

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Now the enemy is arrayed against us. Now the day is at hand when we shall risk everything for our lord and master! For this, we have prepared all the days of our miserable lives. Now you shall learn what it means to be samurai! Fate is in the hands of the gods, our armor is on our breast, success is in our legs! Let us go forward without fear and may our swords find a bloody sheath before we die.- Taira Motomori to his troops at the Battle of the Six Bridges.

Rite Publishing Presents

A faction guide for Kaidan and supplement for the samurai style characters designed for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game by Jonathan McAnulty (Curse of the Golden Spear Trilogy, Kobold Quarterly)

This product contains information on:

Samurai: You will find detailed information on samurai in the Kaidan campaign setting of feudal Japanese horror. Along with the nature of samurai clans you could belong to, how you deal with matters of honor and seppuku, your religious beliefs and alignment, and finally your role as a samurai adventurer.

Honor: Detailing its inherent impact on the Kaidan setting and as a mechanic providing a useful scale to measure your samurai’s standing in the eyes of your peers.

Traits (9): add depth to your samurai’s background from a Legacy of Steel lending you an ancestral blade, or Practiced Calligraphy bringing your pen and sword in accord.

Gunslinger Archetype: Become a Teppou Bushi and embraces the future of warfare, learning to use gunpowder and lead alongside your steel blades.

Paladin Archetype: Choose the way of the Yamabushi divine warrior-monk who draws power from the positive aspects of Yomi (the realm of the dead) and the Kami.

Ranger Archetypes: Become a Yojimbo, the face of the noble lord throughout the lord’s province, traveling about your lord's lands, and defeating your lord's enemies.

Samurai Archetypes (4): Choose the way of the Kuge and be born into a life of wealth, privilege, cultures, art, and scholarly pursuits. Choose to disdain other pursuits, and become a Nitōjutsu Sensei, spending your life perfecting the art of fighting with katana and wakazashi. Choose to champions the natural world, and become a Tajiya samurai dedicating your life lives to ridding the world of unnatural creatures. Alternatively, choose the way of the Yabusame for while most people equate the samurai with the katana, you know that the true weapon of the samurai is the yumi, or bow.

Samurai Orders (3): Join the Order of the Shogun and swear you loyalty to him, serving to maintain order and fight those traitors who disturb the peace of the nation. Join the Order of Tajiya and learn the techniques useful against a variety of supernatural foes. Alternatively, join the Order of the Undying Emperor and serve in the Imperial court, so you can become a master of etiquette and diplomacy.

Wizard Archetypes: Choose the way of the Onmyoji, the legal practitioners of the arcane arts, and become noted for your use of folded paper spell components (origami) and your relationship to the shikigami oni.

PrestigeClasses (2): Become a Bugyo, and gain a great deal of official authority in service to a daimyo. Alternatively, become a Mosa, the elite bodyguard of the nobility, stubbornly refusing to back down, standing resolute, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

Samurai Feats (7): Now let every aspect of your character reflect the outlook of your samurai character weather you are Driven By Honor that continually inspires you to try harder or use Skillful Follow up, to allow your secondary attacks a greater chance of success.

Creating a Samurai Clan: Guidelines and rules for creating customized factions of samurai reflecting the philosophies of its daimyo, the goals of its clan head, the size of the clan, its source of income, and its influence at court.

A fun, if not a little short, supplement that adds quite a bit of stuff for Pathfinder Samurai. The town of Kawashi (the samurai town given for the setting) has some really fun and easy adventure hooks to bring players in. The new feats are nothing [...]

The following review was originally posted at Roleplayers Chronicle and can be read in its entirety at http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=30016. The Way of the Samurai is a whopping 52-page book quite loaded full of options to expand the Samurai class. [...]

Weighing in at 52 pages, the latest oriental themed book from Rite publishing brings us an extremely detailed look into the Samurai, and all that it means to incorporate them as a class into your campaign world, both as a GM and as a player. Of those [...]

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